Copyright
for
Teachers

Material For Teachers

Copyright vs.
Creative Commons
vs. Fair Use

Similarities

all of these rights were created in order to
support people who have created things,
and respect their wishes as to how their
creations are to be treated

These are all respected and
upheld by the US court

Differences

Copyright is automatically applied to any
original work that is created, while a
creator needs to apply for a Creative
Commons.

A courts ruling for Fair Use can have
very different conclusions depending on
each case., Because the world is quickly developing, cases
that are similar can have very different
conclusions depending on the year it was
addressed.

While there is a marking symbol for 'Copyrighted',
not everything under the law is marked because
works are all assumed to be under this law. Creative
Commons material is separately marked with a
circled 'cc'.

What is Fair Use?

Fair Use is the restriction of use of others
material or works. This protects creators
against people taking advantage of their
work.

For more information:

Four Criteria

What is the nature of the work? How much
of it is fiction vs non-fiction? How creative
is the piece?

How much of it are you using?

Why are you using it? What is
the purpose/character or the
use?, commercial vs non-commercial

What affect are you going to have
on the market of the piece of
work?, Are you potentially going to
take money from the
creator?

It is important for Teachers to understand Fair Use
because a good teacher uses material from many
different sources, and the teacher must be aware of
the restrictions placed on the use of the material

Many sources offer special use to
teachers, because they are using the
material for educational purposes., If a teacher shows pictures to a class and the pictures
are protected by Creative Commons, the teacher may
not be doing anything wrong. If the work is
copyrighted, they may be overstepping the copyright
law., When searching online for material,
teachers need to be aware of labels.
If a piece of work is labeled with
'cc', then they need to research
further as to the extent of the
coverage.

What is Creative Commons?

A way for creators to have "some rights
reserved" on their work, as opposed to "all
rights reserved"

A work that is covered by
Creative Commons will be
marked by a circled 'cc'.